Chapter 18 - Red Shirt

At night.

 The stars dotted the night sky, shining dazzlingly, and a crescent moon hung high in the sky.

 The night was quiet and cool. Everything looked normal.

 The enthusiastic villagers held a welcome party for everyone and made a perfect dinner. There were all kinds of fruits. The fruit tasted extremely delicious.

 In the village chief's words, the soil in this village was fertile and was especially suitable for growing fruits. This was a characteristic of the old village.

 After dinner, everyone went their separate ways to get a good night's rest.

 ...

 In a villager's house, the couples were living in a bedroom that had been cleaned up.

 Looking at the bedroom that was filled with an ancient and simple atmosphere, the girl's novelty was brought up again. She kept asking her boyfriend to take photos of her.

 On the other hand, Li Si couldn't argue with her. He could only drag his tired body and take a few photos with a happy face.

 "Great aunt, can we stop for a while? It's been a long day. Could we rest early?"

 Li Si looked at the bed, then at his girlfriend, and said with a bitter face.

 There were three great tortures in his life.

 He would chat with his girlfriend, go shopping with her, and take photos of her.

 Li Si rubbed his temples. He felt that his nerves were in great pain. It was so torturous.

 His girlfriend kept complaining that the lighting was not good or the angle was wrong.

 In short, a few hours passed before Li Si finally managed to take a photo that satisfied his girlfriend.

 "Hmph, when you were wooing me, you called me little Tian Tian. Now, you're calling me great aunt ..."

 "Men ..."

 Looking at his girlfriend pouting as she took out her phone to Photoshop the picture, Li Si felt that silence was the best choice at this time. If he retorted, he might even breathe in the wrong way.

 Thinking of this, Li Si took out his phone, plugged it into the charger, and wanted to play a game before going to bed.

 Eh?

 There was no internet in this village?

 Sigh~

 Forget it, I'd better sleep early!

 "Xiaoli, I'm going to sleep. Don't stay up too late."

 After he finished speaking, Li Si went to sleep without waiting for his girlfriend's reaction.

 ...

 Time passed by.

 In the bedroom.

 There seemed to be a strong wind outside, constantly hitting the window, and the whistling sound filled the whole room. Looking out from the inside, the outside world was completely dark, and the incandescent lamp hanging on the wooden beam was constantly shaking, the light and shadows were flashing everywhere.

 It was particularly quiet and strange.

 Thump Thump Thump Thump

 There were four consecutive short and urgent knocks on the door.

 Li Si jolted awake from his bed and looked around in a daze. He picked up his phone and realized that he had slept for two hours. It was midnight.

 Who was knocking on the door?

 Where's Xiaoli?

 "Li Si, come here quickly!"

 From the guest hall, his girlfriend's voice could be heard. Li Si quickly put on his shoes and ran over.

 He happened to see his girlfriend leaning against the door, seemingly listening to something.

 "Li Si, quick, quick, quick. I tried to knock on the door four times just now. Do you think there will be a protector spirit?"

 This B * tch!

 For some reason, Li Si furrowed his brows as an unknown fire burned in his heart. Doing such a forbidden thing in the middle of the night.

 He had always rejected these things from the bottom of his heart. It was not that he was timid, but he respected the unknown.

 Recently, Yueyang City has not been very peaceful.

 Besides, it wasn't like he didn't know anything. What did knocking four times mean?

 This meant attracting ghosts!

 Although it was only a superstition!

 ...

 "Xiaoli, stop playing and rest early!"

 No matter what, she was his girlfriend. He could only hold back his tears. The ratio of men to women is seriously imbalanced these days. It was good enough to have... One.

 The surroundings were unusually dark, and every black shadow seemed to be a hidden thing.

 It was strange and terrifying!

 "Li Si, do you think that the shelter spirit is handsome or tall?"

 The girl didn't seem to hear her boyfriend's words. The hand holding the flashlight trembled with excitement.

 A glint flashed in her eyes. A beautiful image had already appeared in her mind. Just thinking about it was exciting.

 Li Si was getting impatient. To be precise, he was inexplicably irritated. His irritation was mixed with a trace of fear of the darkness. All he wanted to do now was to take his girlfriend back to the bedroom.

 Then, he went to bed.

 Rest!

 However, just as he grabbed his girlfriend's arm.

 ...

 Thump Thump Thump Thump

 There was a knock on the door, echoing in the darkness.

 It was creepy!

 At that instant, Li Si felt as if he had stopped breathing, and his entire mind fell into a state of emptiness.

 His girlfriend was also stunned. She immediately stretched out her hands to show that she hadn't done it and hid behind Li Si at lightning speed.

 Li Si: "????"

 "Li Si, I... I didn't do it on purpose, I..." The girl said.

 The girl's body trembled. She was just curious, but she didn't expect it to...

 As if in response to the two of them, there was a knock on the door again.

 The rhythm was exactly the same as before.

 Four times!

 Was it a ghost?

 Gulp~

 Li Si swallowed his saliva. A cold chill ran from his toes to the top of his head, and his scalp went numb.

 The knocking continued as if the person outside didn't agree.

 The sound was very scary, especially in the middle of the night. At first, the two were ready to ignore it, but after a while, the two finally couldn't stand it anymore.

 Rather than being scared to death, he might as well take the initiative to attack!

 Li Si found an iron shovel in the dark, and his pale girlfriend was hiding behind him, desperately grabbing his sleeve.

 ...

 Creak~

 The ear-piercing sound of the chains reverberated in the dead-silent room, and the two felt as though their hearts were in their throats.

 Hu hu

 A gust of wind gushed into the room from outside, causing their clothes to flutter wildly, making their originally pale faces even more unsightly.

 Outside the door... Stood a person.

 It was a woman in red with a red lantern in her hand!

 A pair of dark eyes were staring at the two of them. She had a beautiful face, delicate and well-defined features, and her skin as white as paper. There was a strange smile on her lips.

 It was like the fake smile of a dead person.

 It was extremely terrifying in the dark night!

 The moment the figure appeared, Li Si was scared out of his wits. Only then did he realize that he could not move.

 "Am I Beautiful?"

 The woman spoke slowly. Her voice was emotionless, only indifferent and cold.

 The two of them didn't speak, their minds blank.

 The woman in red in the dark was like a robot, repeating the same sentence.

 Li Si replied, perhaps it was because he had suppressed his fears to the extreme, Li Si finally said in a trembling voice, "Beautiful."

 The red-clothed woman in front of him quieted down. Then, the lantern in her hand lit up with a red light.

 The cold night wind blew into the room again. The two of them were shivering from the cold, and they were still unable to move.

 "Do you love me?"

 The red-clothed woman's expression became more and more like that of a dead person.

 With his first experience, Li Si gritted his teeth and said, "Love."

 The lantern in the red-clothed woman's hand was completely extinguished.

 Creak~

 The door was slowly closed.

 The wind stopped, as if nothing had happened.

 ...

 In another room.

 Qiao Yuan put down his backpack and took out a hot water bottle. He filled the jar with well water, plugged it in, and started boiling the water.

 Wang Jing was sitting on the bed, motionless.

 "Wang Jing, when did we go on the blind date?"

 Qiao Yuan asked as he sipped the warm water in the thermos.

 "On the 21st," Wang Jing replied.

 Qiao Yuan nodded and continued to ask, "When did you arrive that day?"

 "Around 12:30," Wang Jing replied after some thought.

 The answers were all quite right. In order to speed up the process, Qiao Yuan decided to end it quickly.

 "How long did you use the toilet? What position were you in? Which hand did I use to grab your best friend? What color and brand of stockings did she wear that day? Did you accept the flowers I gave you? Did you take a step with your left foot or right foot when you left the café? What's on her stomach? What time did she meet me that night? What did she say about me..."

 "..."

 Wang Jing was silent for a moment.

 She thought about it for a full five minutes.

 "About six minutes later, the third pit near the door. It should be the left hand. Black silk, balisio. No, I think it's my left foot. I can't remember clearly. Scar. I remember she came out to see you at one in the morning and said you were the best of the bad guys..."

 Wang Jing answered them one by one. For some of the questions that she did not have a deep impression of, she used vague terms like "probably" or "seemed" and so on.

 The room fell silent, and for a moment, only the sound of the boiling water could be heard.

 Wang Jing raised her doubts.

 "Qiao Yuan, how did you know that my best friend has a scar on her stomach?"

 Qiao Yuan was speechless.

 "Don't interrupt me. I'm the one asking the questions. I have one last question. What happened last night?"

 Qiao Yuan said with a serious expression.

 "I forgot." Wang Jing was shocked. She stared at him with her innocent eyes and thought for a while before she replied.

 Qiao Yuan: "????"

 Did she really forget or ...?

 Qiao Yuan sat at the side, frowning deep in thought.

 ...

 After about ten minutes.

 Wang Jing spoke again.

 "Qiao Yuan... Brother Qiao Yuan, can you untie me?"

 "My body is numb from being tied up."

 "I want to pee!"

 On the bed, Wang Jing was wrapped up like a dumpling with only her head exposed.

 She sized Qiao Yuan up with her innocent eyes.

 She didn't know why, but Qiao Yuan had touched her as soon as she entered the room, then she was tied up without any resistance.

 It had become like this!

 Qiao Yuan had only said one sentence.

 "Please prove that you are yourself in three minutes!"

 After Wang Jing gave him her ID, he didn't untie her. Instead, he asked her a few more strange questions.

 Qiao Yuan's right hand tapped rhythmically on the wooden table, his brows furrowed.

 "From the looks of it ... There's no problem with my memories before I entered this place."

 Qiao Yuan actually didn't know the answers to some of the questions he had asked before, such as which foot she had stepped on. However, what Qiao Yuan wanted was for her to think. Normal people would never be able to recall all the details of what had happened that day in an instant.

 So, Qiao Yuan could make a preliminary judgment that Wang Jing had only lost her memory.

 And now, they had reached the final step.

 Qiao Yuan stood up and took a pair of sunglasses from his backpack for Wang Jing.

 "If it hurts later, scream."

 Qiao Yuan said sternly, but deep down, he was thinking that if she dared to make a sound, there would definitely be something wrong with her.

 Gulp~

 Wang Jing swallowed her saliva and felt uneasy. The room was already dark, and with the sunglasses on, her eyes were instantly covered in darkness. She could not see anything clearly!

 He had also tied her up.

 What was he trying to do?

 What could he do?

 Bad images kept flashing through Wang Jing's mind. Her breathing quickened and her lips were pursed tightly together.

 Suddenly, a hand reached over and pinched her face hard.

 Just for a moment.

 Hu~

 Qiao Yuan let out a sigh of relief. When he pinched Wang Jing's round face under the golden light, she didn't feel any pain. This proved that she wasn't a spirit or a puppet like Jia Hong.

 So, Wang Jing had only lost her memory of that night.

 What happened that night?